So, by now you’ve figured out that the video blogging was kind of… um… fake. I’ve been keeping track of my week day by day with real events. So, now that it’s all over, here’s The Real Alone Week:
Monday
Mary Jo left this morning. I went down to the main train station with her and saw her off. Coming back to the room alone was really weird. I did manage to stop on the way back and buy some stuff. It was more a proof of concept activity than anything else. Seems like a good way to start the week was to try actually doing something without the Mary Jo safety net.
I’ve spent the afternoon goofing off and taking care of a few small projects for myself. I’ve got about 2 hours until I need to head down to my German class. I’m scared, but it seems better than it did even this morning. Here’s hoping it goes well!
Monday Night
I went to the German class and had quite a good time. We covered a lot of stuff I already knew, but we did do some new things. Since I knew a lot, it was rather easy. Since it was rather easy, it was fun. Since it was fun, I look forward to tomorrow. Once it gets hard my tune might change, but for now, it’s full steam ahead!
Another thing: I keep looking over at Mary Jo’s bed expecting to see her, but she isn’t there. It shocks me for a second, then I remember. This might be a long week…
Tuesday
I managed to get the Xbox today. I was excited, but then I ran into issues. Also, I figured out how they charge custom’s fees. They take the US $ value, convert to Euros (they used 1.288 dollars per Euro – best rate I’ve seen so far), then take 20% of that as the fee. Yeah, nasty. Especially when replacement cost in Euros is higher than in dollars. Stuff over here is the same number of money units, but if the Euro is 1.3 dollars, then to buy a $100 thing here, I need to pay 100 Euro which is $130. Not cool customs. Not cool.
German class went well again. It was pretty much all review this time. Still interesting though. I’m thinking 14 sessions is going to go quickly. One scary bit though. I went to class, but the front door was closed. I gave it a pull and it wouldn’t open. A guy standing outside started saying something to me, but not speaking German, all I could do was give him a dumb look. He then pushed the door open for me. *sigh* The dumb look probably fit well.
The word he was saying was “drücken”, meaning “push”. I find that when it takes a long time to learn something, or if it’s learned in an embarrassing way, I tend to remember it. I don’t think I’ll have any problem remembering “drücken”… ever.
Wednesday
Quiet day today. I was planning on going out and looking into the Xbox situation a bit, but I never got to it. Instead, I laid around and watched videos all morning. I went to class. Today we had a sub. She’s not as good as the normal teacher. We basically went over the same stuff we covered yesterday. That’s OK though. Tomorrow she asked us to bring a family photo, so I’ll have to get one of those printed. Sure am glad we bought that printer!
This evening I worked on a little side project for Mary Jo. It’s essentially internet hang-man. It’s pretty neat. I’m going to finish up the last few bits, then I should be able to give you a link.
Thursday
This morning I went out to do some research on getting a new Xbox/power supply. The news is not good. The actual retail places only sell the new model. I could us that, but I’d need a transfer cable to get data off my hard drive, and I’d have to use my flash drive as a storage device, since the cheap ones don’t come with large hard drives. There was a place that I knew had a used Xbox, so I stopped in there. They had sold it. *sigh* I’m seriously considering cutting my losses and just going without the Xbox. I kind of hate Microsoft for not selling replacement power supplies. That’s all I really need: a good quality power supply.
Discounting the whole Xbox situation though, it turned into a good day. I did a little shopping, finished up a program, and went to German class. Class was a good time again. We did review essentially and then a game to learn each others names. After that I went out to pick up a few more food items. I kept forgetting things, so I went back and forth between the back of the store and the front. It was probably pretty funny from a third person view. I also had another forced interaction.
There was some ambiguity about which checkout line was which. A man asked me if I was in one line, I just kind of gestured that he could go up there. I hope it wasn’t silly. It didn’t feel silly.
This evening I’m going to chill out in preparation for the return of Mary Jo. I’m excited to hear all about this training as you guys are!
Friday
Today’s video was a bit last minute in terms of idea. I was going to end the “funny” with the last video and do a normal one about how excited I was to see Mary Jo today, but last night I had this idea to do a PSA. This one involved more post work than the others. I did three separate recordings to get the segments, then tied it all together in iMovie. I even bought the background audio off iTunes for $1. Now there’s money tied up in these things, so you’d better enjoy them!
The only problem with doing creative stuff like this is that it makes me want to buy a real video camera. I’ve been using our picture camera that also has an HD video capability. You can see that it’s not a pro one when the focus changes during action. A real camera wouldn’t be so picky. Oh well, there’s no funds to buy one anyway. The stupid Xbox is eating all that discretionary money.
Mary Jo is home now, so I guess it’s back to business.
very interesting, but not as funny! Glad you made it through the week and that Mary Jo is back.
Do you find yourself not being able to zone out as much when people speak German around you? I used to be able to just absorb it all as sound but now when people speak Japanese I actually hear and find it easier to pay attention.